I'm probably going to propose changing my local league over to a keeper league, this year; we've finally achieved a stable base of owners, after more than 10 years (we've never had a lot of turnover, but the 2000-'02 seasons saw 4-5 teams leave, and we rushed to get new owners), and I think it would be a good time to change over to a keeper format, if other owners agree.

However, we use a draft rather than an auction. We're not going to be changing that format anytime soon...

What are some decent rules for keeper leagues using drafts? I saw the "contract years" system in somebody else's post, and have also seen a system which assigns a point value. (A player drafted in round 25, the final round, would be worth 1 point. 1st round would be 25 points. Each year a player is kept, he gains 2-3 points; if your kept player is worth 20 points, you lose your 6th round pick, etc. And some arbitrary set of numbers can't be kept... like 21-25, top five rounds.)

Well, I do want to keep the amount of kept players low. I'm thinking what I had in the perenthetical is easiest to keep track of, but sufficient.

So, something like this:

Max players kept - 4
Players are assigned a pt value equivalent to the round they were picked. 1st = 1, 2nd = 2, etc. Each year you keep a player, 3 pts are subtracted from his total. So, if a player drafted in round 20 is kept, he'd be worth 17 points the next year. As such, you'd lose your 17th-round pick for the next draft. Once a player's score drops to 4 or less, he can't be kept. Players can only be kept for <insert arbitrary number, like 4> years after their initial season.

If that's horribly flawed, let me know... but I want something fairly simple to begin with, with potential adjustment later on, in future years.

But why use a point system? Just make the draft pick more valuable each season. Make it drop three rounds every year or something, so if you got him in the 10th this year, next year you lose your 7th round pick if you keep the guy, the year after that the 4th round .... and so on. Set the max keepers at like 4 or 5 still, but it would make it eaiser than keeping track of points for both you and the the other owners